The present invention relates to a storage system comprising a storage device (also called as a disk array device) provided with a storage controlling function with respect to storage resources, and particularly, relates to techniques for managing of configuration information including that of, for example, allocation and association of storage resources in the storage system.
In an example configuration of a conventional storage system, a storage device (abbreviated as an IS) serving as an initiator (abbreviated as an I) and a storage device (abbreviated as a TS) serving as a target (abbreviated as a T) are connected via a frame relay device (abbreviated as an R). In the storage system, the I and the T are in the superior-subordinate relationship, and the I unidirectionally accesses a storage volume (abbreviated as a V) which is owned by the T. The terms I and T are according to that of the standard of, for example, SCSI or Fibre Channel (abbreviated as FC). The R is an information processing device for relaying the communication between the I and the T. And, the R is, for example, is a storage device provided with a switch such as a FC-SW (Fibre Channel Switch) and with a relay function. The I is an information processing device such as a storage device (IS) or a host computer (also referred to as a host). The T is, for example, a storage device (TS) which is accessed from the I and responds by performing input/output with respect to the V owned by the T. For example, in response to a data input/output request from the host connected thereto, the IS performs input/output with respect to the V owned by the IS or the V owned by another storage device (TS).
Hereinafter, the V owned by an initiator (I) is referred to as an IV, and the V owned by a target (T) is referred to as a TV. The ID (identification information) or the address of a V is referred to as a VID. The unique ID of an IV is referred to as an IVID, and the unique ID of a TV is referred to as a TVID. The configuration relating to Vs in a storage system is referred to as a V configuration, and the configuration information thereof is referred to as V configuration information.
Recently, in the above described storage system having an I and a T, particularly, various functions such as the function of virtualization of storage resources for integrally handling Vs of the devices, or that for sharing TV(s) by a plurality of Is have been provided. When setting for associating IVs with TVs by, for example, VIDs, as V configuration information in the storage system is performed, the TVs can be utilized through access to the IVs. The R relays I-T communication for performing IV-TV access.
A technique relating to the V configuration information is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-145901. In this technique, conversion of frames is performed in a switch device in accordance with a management table.
In the above described example of a conventional storage system, setting and management of the configuration information of ISs was performed in a configuration wherein a management server connected to the ISs via a LAN or the like and software therefor (storage management program) is introduced. An administrator performed operations including setting of the V configuration by use of, for example, a management server or a management terminal connected to each IS.
Therefore, additional equipment such as the LAN and the server device are required in addition to the elements such as the storage devices and the frame relay device (R) which are essential in the storage system configuration, which results in high cost. Moreover, the above described LAN is the network having a transfer rate lower than the transfer rate of the I/Fs between the storage devices and the R. Therefore, in V setting, limitations are imposed on the system by the above described transfer rate of the LAN. Thus, the performance in exclusive control of the setting of a V using the LAN and the management server becomes low, and the required performance may not be satisfied.
The technique described in above mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-145901 also requires additional equipment such as a management terminal or a management server connected to the switch device, etc.